In The End
by Pricee
Summary: This is the new version of a story I wrote in 2015. After re-reading it, I found that I completely hated how it was worded and that I needed to change it (hopefully it's better now...). Set Post Predacons Rising and Arcee needs help coping with Optimus's sacrifice.


**"Above all, do not lament my absence. For in my spark, I know that this is not the end; but merely a new beginning. Simply put, another transformation."**

A week had past since Optimus's sacrifice, a long week filled with mourning and attempts to rebuild Cybertron; Team Prime, and the newly recruited Knockout, were all hard at work on the rebuild, fulfilling Optimus's last wishes, the pace of it was going well, slow but steady. Refugees had begun to arrive back on Cybertron. So far, everything was peaceful, which everyone was thankful for after the eons of war and destruction. Bumblebee drove back into the temporary base, skidding to a stop by where Ratchet stood overlooking the monitors. He'd been supervising at a building site until Ultra Magnus, who was back to moderate health, came to take over.  
"The hospital is coming along nicely. At this rate, they will probably have it finished in about 2 weeks." Bumblebee informed Ratchet as he took a cube of energon from the storage unit.  
"Good. The sooner we have that completed, the sooner we can move on to another project." Most of the team was present, bar Knockout, who was on supervising the rebuilding of the Hall of Records.  
"Where's Arcee?" Bumblebee asked the room upon noticing the femme's absence.  
"Where do you think?" Ratchet's question needed no answer. She'd spent almost all of her time at the Well Of Allsparks over the last week; while all of the team had taken Optimus's death hard, she was suffering the most, but she wouldn't let anyone help her. She'd barely spoken in a week, spending all of her time alone at the Well. The team were all taking turns checking on her, hourly, but she rarely, if ever, acknowledged their presence or words of comfort; she had shut down completely.  
"It's been a while since anyone went out there, someone go and check on her." Ratchet instructed as he continued his work on one of the multiple monitors in the room.

"I'll go." Bee placed the, now empty, energon cube down on the table, before turning and transforming into his alt mode and driving out of the base. The Well wasn't far from where the base had been set up, so it wouldn't take long for him to get there. As he drove, Bumblebee let his mind drift to everything that had changed in the recent months. He wondered how the kids, Raf, were doing on Earth. When the team had first left, they'd at least had Ratchet with them, but now everyone was back on Cybertron; how were they doing without any of the bots there with them? He knew that because they now had a spacebridge of their own, they would be able to see them again, their time on Earth wasn't completely over.  
He took in how Cybertron looked now that the fog of war had been lifted. He had been born into war, it was all he had known, but it meant that he'd never seen how Cybertron looked in its former glory. The rest of the team had described it to him, as they remembered it, but Be was looking forward to rebuilding Cybertron to it's former glory, and perhaps even surpass the "Golden Age".  
Drawing nearner to the Well, he transformed again and spotted Arcee sitting on the edge of the Well. She had her back to him, looking down into the depths and, whether or not she knew he was there, he got no acknowledgement from her.

"Cee?" Bumblebee gently approached the femme, looking for any signs that she was actually listening to him. She had her legs dangling over the edge of the Well, absentmindedly swinging them back and forth. When he himself stood on the edge, Bee could faintly see the light of the Allspark shining, signifying the life that had returned to Cybertron, thanks to the Optimus's sacrifice. His attention back on Arcee, Bumblebee took notice of how tired she looked. Her winglets and shoulders were drooped down, face drained of any life; thinking back, Bumblebee hadn't seen Arcee take any energon since the last morning she and Optimus emerged from their quarters, "Come on Arcee, talk to me. You can't shut us out forever; we are all here for you."  
"I know. Ratchet told me. So did Bulkhead. And Wheeljack; Smokescreen, even Knockout." Her voice sounded devoid of any emotion and her eyes never lifted from the distant light at the bottom of the Well.  
"It's the truth. Optimus wouldn't want this. He wouldn't want you to shut down. Talk to me, please." Silence. She continued to stare down into the well.

"Okay then, I'll talk, you listen and you can join in when, or if, you want to." When he still got no real acknowledgement or reply from her, he continued, "I remember the first time I met Optimus. It was when I was at the Academy, half way through my first year there. One day he just showed up, came around talking to all of us individually, it took him hours but he did it, he didn't miss out a single bot. I remember thinking that I wanted to be just like him; he looked so strong and in control, like a true warrior. When he spoke to me I had no idea what to say, I just stared up at him. He patted me on the shoulder and asked me about what I had learned, how I, personally, thought I was doing, rather then what my teachers thought; my strengths and weaknesses. He gave me advice on how to further improve my strengths and to master my weaknesses. Without him, I wouldn't be as I am today." Bee looked back down into the well, an occasional flash of light came up the walls, a bright flash contrasting the darkness.  
"He had that affect on bots." Arcee's reply stunned Bumblebee, he hadn't expected her to reply to him, "He could make you see hope, even in the darkest times. When Airachnid killed Tailgate, he never left my side, I barely left his arms for, I don't know, almost 3 weeks. He went everywhere with me; held me as I cried, held me while we slept. He was so caring and protective of me." Her head dropped down as she felt tears flooding to her eyes.

"He really loved you, we could all see it; from the way he spoke about you to, the way he looked at you. There was always a light in his eyes when he looked at you." Bee pulled Arcee into his arms when tears fell from her eyes, one hand cradling her head as she clung to his arm. Arcee rested her head against his chest, gripping Bee tightly as she attempted to calm herself down.  
"I need him Bee, I can't do this alone, I need him." She forced the words out past her tears, head nestled into Bee's chest, a trail of tears sliding down his chest.  
"You aren't alone Cee. We are all here for you, your family, and we aren't going anywhere. And you can still visit Jack too." She wiped the tears from her eyes, but stayed cuddled into Bumblebee's side. She knew that Bee was right, she still had her family with her. But without Optimus, it wouldn't be the same.

"What about you? How did you two meet?"  
"We were young, it was our first year at the academy. Orion was sat by me in a lecture one day and we got to talking, we became really close friends." She recalled, seemingly calming down.  
"And then what?"  
"A couple weeks before we graduated, Orion asked me to go to the Crystal City with him. At the end of the day, he kissed me, told me that he'd been wanting to do it for years. We were together ever since then. We've been through it all together."  
"He really loved you."  
"I love him." The two stayed huddled together for a while, letting a silence set in between them. Bee didn't want to push her too much if she wasn't ready.

"Cee, I'm going to head back to the base, you coming?"  
"Not yet, but I won't be long now." Arcee wiped the final fear tears from her face and Bee's chest.  
"You going to be okay?"  
"Yeah. Honestly Bee, I'll be fine." The two untangled themselves from each other and Bee stood to leave. He looked down into the Well once more, sighing as he turned away from it, "Bee," He looked over his shoulder to the femme, "Thanks."  
"It's what family does." Smiling at the femme, Bumblebee transformed and left her to herself.

Arcee looked back into the Well when Bumblebee had disappeared from sight, a fresh set of tears brimming her optics, "I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm going to say this anyway, I need to." Arcee wiped the tears from her eyes, "I know why you did it; you did what you needed to do, but that doesn't make it any easier though. I can't want move on from you, you were such a big part of my life for so long. And I mean who can follow Optimus Prime. I still remember what you said when we first kissed, 'I am yours, and you are mine'." A smile came to Arcee's face as she recalled the memory, "This will never get any easier. Losing someone that you care about more then anything else, you never really come back from that." Her voice trailed off sadly, fresh tears coating her optics. "I fell in love with Orion Pax before the war, and I will always be in love with Optimus Prime; we'll be together again, one day."  
She gently placed her hand over her stomach, smiling. "I know you would have been an amazing father." Getting to her feet, gave a final look down into the Well before heading back towards the base, transforming and driving away.  
A single red spark of light flew out the well as she drove.


End file.
